The master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2)St. Aubyn, Alan
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The master of St. Benedict's, Vol. 2 (of 2)
St. Aubyn, Alan
Cambridge (England) -- Fiction; School principals -- Fiction; Students -- Fiction
They had gone down now; everybody had gone down. Wyatt Edgell had gone
down the day that Lucy sent back that answer to his message. He had
gone without taking his degree.
Everybody was crying out at his folly, and a great many people--wise
people--thought they knew the reason why, but no one guessed the real
cause of his hasty departure from Cambridge.
Lucy was not sorry that he was gone. She could not have met him again
in the court in the cloisters. She would not have been sure that he
would not have taken her in his arms, and that all her fine resolutions
would not have melted away. But he was gone down. She had nothing more
to fear from him. She had an ugly dream about him the night he left
Cambridge, a dream that haunted her still.
She dreamt that Wyatt Edgell was falling over the edge of a precipice,
and that he held out his arms to her, but she would not reach out a
hand to save him.
There was a great deal to be done in these lonely days of the Long
Vacation. There was a good deal to be done, and now it could be done
quietly, with no lynx-eyed undergraduates looking on.
Of course, they would have to turn out of the lodge--at least, so
Cousin Mary said, when they were talking things over a few days after
the Master's funeral.
The Master had behaved very generously to his niece; he had left her
all the furniture of the lodge and what little money he died possessed
of. He had made no mention whatever in his will of his nephew Dick's
little daughter. The will had been made years ago, when Lucy's father
was living, and she was not dependent on his bounty.
It was really very lucky for Lucy that the Senior Tutor had made her an
offer at such a time.
'We shall continue to live together, of course, dear, if you have no
other plans,' Mary said, and she paused to see if Lucy had any plans
about her future, but Lucy was silent.
'I suppose you will give up Newnham now?' she continued presently, and
Lucy thought there was just a shade of derision in her voice; but this
was only fancy.
She might be excused for fancying it, for she had been plucked in both
her examinations. She had failed in both parts of the Little-go. There
was quite reason enough to account for her failing at such a time that
she need not have fancied that Cousin Mary underrated her powers.
'No, I shall certainly not give up Newnham,' Lucy said with some
spirit. 'I shall go in for the examination again in October. I shall
continue at Newnham until--until----'
She couldn't finish the sentence, but stopped short in the middle, and
blushed delightfully.
'Until what?' Cousin Mary said bluntly. She hated to see girls
blushing; she never blushed herself.
'Until I am married,' Lucy said softly, and her eyes fell and her
colour rose.
It was a great pity that the new Master of St. Benedict's was not there
to see her.
'Married?' Mary repeated, with a little break in her voice. 'Whoever
are you going to marry, child?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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